September 13, 2006 - Vancouver Sun (CN BC)

Police Agreed To Pay $1 Million To Angels Informer, Trial
Told

Witness Testifies RCMP Also Bought Him A Car And Never Questioned
His Spending

By Neal Hall

A former Vancouver man has admitted on the witness stand that
he signed an agreement with the RCMP to be paid $1 million to
help infiltrate the Hells Angels and put them behind bars.

Michael Plante, testifying at the second day of the drug trial
of Hells Angels member Ronaldo Lising and co-accused Nima Ghavami,
said he has already been paid $500,000 and will be paid another
$500,000 after all the legal proceedings end.

He also admitted RCMP bought him a 1997 Mustang, leased him
a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and paid him up to $14,000 a month,
plus expenses, including tickets to Mexico and dinners where
he spent up to $2,000.

"No," replied Plante, who was brought into a high-security
courtroom by an undercover police team.

Plante is living under a new name in an undisclosed location
but is not in a witness protection program.

The witness said he had approached police twice before --
in 2000 and 2001 -- about supplying information about his "friends,"
who included members of the East End chapter of the Hells Angels.
But police turned down his offers, he said.

He testified he was charged with extortion in July 2003 after
he was hired by the Hells Angels to beat a man.

In April 2004, he added, he signed an initial agreement with
police for $30,000 to supply information about a number of targets,
including Hells Angels members.

At the time, Plante testified, he was working as a doorman
and bouncer at the Cecil Hotel strip bar on Granville Street.
He said he was only making about $10 a hour and working about
15 hours a week.

To supplement his income, he recalled, he worked as a middleman
in drug deals -- he would make a few hundreds dollars a month
putting dealers and buyers together.

He also made some extra money as hired "muscle"
by collecting debts for the Hells Angels, he said.

One time, he recalled, he went along with a Hells Angels member,
Randy Potts, who intended to fatally shoot a man who had beaten
up a Hells Angels hangaround of the East End chapter -- a hangaround
is a person who is allowed to attend Hells Angels functions but
has not been accepted into the Hells Angels.

"I went along as a companion, a friend," Plante
explained of his accompanying the biker to the intended victim's
house, who wasn't shot.

"You were there taking care of business," DelBigio
suggested.

"To further my status in the Hells Angels," Plante
replied, explaining he had applied to become a member of the
East End chapter of the Hells Angels and was often invited to
the biker gang's clubhouse.

He said he signed his initial written agreement with the RCMP
-- dated April 15, 2004 --while he was working as an informant,
for which he was paid $2,000 a month.

But he signed a new agreement on June 19, 2004, when he became
a police agent. The new agreement said he would assist police
in exchange for a $1-million reward.

Plante said he was aware that the agreement could be terminated
if he committed a crime of violence or was involved in a drug
offence under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act.

The witness said he was a steroid user and weightlifter who
then weighed about 111 kilograms (240 pounds) and could bench-press
400 pounds (180 kilos).

Plante denied he decided to work as a police agent because
he had a grudge against a number of people police wanted to target
during the investigation.

He also denied the defence lawyer's suggestion that his steroid
use made him volatile. Plante said he was only taking a half
tablet of steroids a day.

The defence lawyer went through a number of assaults committed
by Plante while he was a police agent, which the lawyer contends
was beyond the scope allowed under Section 25.1 of the Criminal
Code, which regulates the behaviour of police agents.

The defence has applied for the charges to be stayed against
the accused, alleging there was an abuse of process because the
police knowingly permitted Plante to commit crimes such as assault,
gun possession and steroid trafficking that were not exempted
under the Criminal Code.

Ghavami, 26, earlier filed a civil lawsuit against the RCMP,
claiming he was assaulted by Plante, who allegedly put a gun
in Ghavami's mouth a number of times.

He claims the agent's illegal activities were sanctioned by
an RCMP cover team.

The federal prosecutor in the case, Martha Devlin, plans to
question Plante after he is cross-examined by defence lawyers
DelBigio and Don Morrison, who is representing Ghavami.

Provincial Crown prosecutor Geordie Proulx had applied Monday
for a temporary ban on publication of the proceedings, which
the trial judge, Justice Victor Curtis, lifted Tuesday after
hearing arguments from lawyers representing the media.

"I'm not persuaded publication [by the media] will present
a real and substantial risk to a subsequent trial," the
judge said in an oral ruling late Tuesday.

The provincial Crown said he was concerned that evidence heard
at the trial of Lising and Ghavami could affect the right of
the accused to a fair trial at another jury trial in November,
where Lising and others are accused of committing crimes at the
direction and for the profit of the Hells Angels.

At the current trial, Ghavami has pleaded not guilty to trafficking
methamphetamines and Lising has pleaded not guilty to possessing
methamphetamines for the purpose of trafficking.

Two senior RCMP officers --Insp. Bob Paulson, who headed the
investigation, and Assistant Commissioner Gary Bass, who oversaw
the criminal probe -- are expected to be called to testify at
the abuse-of-process voir dire, which is expected to take two
weeks.

The trial, which is being heard without a jury, is expected
to last six weeks.

The two accused were among 18 men charged in July 2005 after
a police investigation code-named Project Epandora, which culminated
with a raid on the clubhouse of the East End chapter of the Hells
Angels.

The trial continues today at the Vancouver Law Courts.

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